One Small Difference, One Big Change
by Nozomi Higurashi
Summary: My style DBZ starting with Hercule's #1 mistake - only in this fic, he's got the balls to admit the truth!
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any DBZ characters. If I did, the plot would have followed this story's plot.

-DBZ-

Hercule stood and surveyed the empty battlefield, amazed at what he had seen. A kid, no older than his own daughter, had defeated the Earth's greatest threat, exhausting himself in the process, and had been carried away by a fellow fighter to "fix the damages". The Champ wondered what those mystery fighters had meant by that.

"Say, Hercule, do you know what happened here?" the news reporter asked as he got to his feet. The Champ looked at the barren wasteland on last time before answering.

"The kid did it."

"Say what?"

"The kid. The Delivery Boy. He did it. He- he saved us all."

The Champ was still in shock over the raw power that boy possessed. He was counting his lucky stars that the Delivery Boy had a pure heart to go with that amazing strength. He didn't want to anger that kid either - he saw what happens when you push him too far. That plus the Champ's admiration of the boy was all that was keeping him from lying and taking the credit himself.

"So you're saying that little boy did what no other fighter could, not even yourself?"

"Are you blind! That kid had powers I've never seen before and I was coming up with answers outta my ass because I had no idea what was going on! That kid's a hero - a superhero at that, and I have no right to look down on him when his father died to save us, and his red-headed friend sacrificed himself to get that kid into gear!" Hercule looked down, ashamed. "I was jealous so I planned on making them out to be amateurs and tricksters. Truth is, compared to them, I'M the amateur."

Needless to say, the reporter was astounded as Mr. Satan's sudden humility. Gazing from the battlefield to his hero and back again, he realized that Hercule wasn't just being modest - no ordinary fighter could have caused that much damage and lived to tell the tale. He looked at the World Champ once again.

"Where did they go?" he wondered.

"Poor kid exhausted himself so he was carried by that scarred fighter. The bald one carried away the woman Cell threw up, and the three-eyed guy carried the dead purple-haired warrior. They said something about summoning a dragon to fix the damages or something and flew away," Hercule said quietly. The reporter nodded and rushed to the truck where his cameraman was shouting that the radio was still working.

-DBZ-

The world was stunned when they heard the news. They were flabbergasted when those killed by Cell came back to life after an unnatural darkness blanketed the sky. Hercule understood what "damages" the fighters went to fix when he heard the dead returned to life. Those warriors had a fail-safe that would allow them to bring back any casualties in a situation like this. In other words, they were highly trained warriors meant to protect the Earth from harm with connections to Kami himself. It was the only explanation.

People searched for these warriors for a long time, but only Yamcha was ever found, and he said he wasn't going to give his comrades unwanted attention if he could help it. When asked if he would reveal them so that they could be properly thanked, his response was, "Doing the right thing and stopping that monster is it's own reward for my friends. They don't care for fame and fortune, many of them preferring the quiet, simple life. Please, don't bother them. If the need arises, they will come back and defend the Earth and her people again. Until then, you'd have better luck finding Bigfoot than locating their whereabouts." After that, he promptly flew away to avoid any more questions.

The only other clue anyone had was that the "Delivery Boy"'s name was apparently Gohan, since the older Gold Fighter had called him that, causing the minor confusion. Gohan was an unusual name, but none of the Gohans found even remotely resembled the Gold Fighter kid. And the reporters had since all Gohans born in every major hospital in the world by the end of six months. The kid was a ghost... Until four years later.


	2. Stepping Out

"Bye Mom, bye Goten!" shouted the 15-year-old Gohan and he "rushed" out of the house and took to the skies. His mom and 4-year-old brother waved good-bye from to the doorway as the demi-Saiyan flew toward Orange Star City for his first day of high school. He was modestly dressed with a white long-sleeved shirt, a black vest with the Orange Star High logo on it, and a pair of red casual pants. He lived 5 hours away from his school by car, but only 30 minutes if he flew there himself. He had been amazed when Hercule admitted the truth after the Cell Games, but a bit disappointed as well. He had been hoping to go to a middle school and get away from his mother a bit, but with the world looking for their savior, he decided to wait until he was old enough for high school before stepping into the open. Hopefully by then, things would have calmed down a bit.

As he flew, he heard gunshots in the distance. His gentle face hardened as he thought of innocent people getting hurt. Turning in the direction of the disturbance, he saw a bunch of bank robbers shooting up police cars so they could make their getaway. The hero landed quietly in the alley behind the robbers and set down his bag before stepping into the open.

"Mind telling me what you're committing a crime rather than working hard like everyone else?" the demi-Saiyan said in a rich baritone, drawing everyone's attention to himself. As expected, the robberies unleashed a barrage of bullets at him to make an example - only the ammunition only tore at the teen's shirt before bouncing harmlessly off his skin. The assault stopped when Gohan took a confident step forward, scaring the robbers senseless.

"What- what the hell are you?" one of them cried out. Gohan disappeared from view before reappearing in the middle of the robbery team.

"I'm your worst nightmare," he said before swiftly chopping each criminal in the base of the neck and vanishing. He picked up his bag and flew to the school, changing into his violet fighting gi in mid-air. He had intended for it to be his gym clothes, but it wasn't like he'd be able to work up a sweat in class anyway.

The demi-Saiyan landed gently at the front gates, causing quite a few heads to turn. Not that he noticed. He heard whispers all around him, but ignored them for the time being. He needed to get to the auditorium for the freshman entrance assembly.

More whispers followed him there before he found a seat next to a raven-haired, pig-tailed girl. She looked at Gohan in awe, trying not to believe her eyes because it was too unbelievable. The demi-Saiyan felt her stare and turned to her.

"Something wrong?" he asked gently. The girl snapped out of it and shook her head. "Okay. Well, may as well introduce myself. My name is Son Gohan."

"Gohan? As in THE Gohan?" she asked incredulously. Gohan noticeably flinched.

"Yeah," he said carefully before muttering, "Maybe going to a public school wasn't such a good idea after all."

The girl heard him and immediately felt bad for her outburst. 'Yamcha the Bandit DID say he wasn't one for fame or fortune. He must have been hoping that by waiting all these years, things would have died down,' she thought sullenly. Apologetically, she said, "I'm sorry, I just... I always wanted to learn what you can do, but Yamcha the Bandit isn't taking students and.. well... umm... Anyway, my name is Satan Videl, and it's very nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's mine," Gohan said politely, gently taking the tiny hand offered into his large one. Videl blushed. 'He's so polite! Oh, Kami, I hope he likes it here, I hate for him to leave!'

-DBZ-

To Videl's delight, Gohan was in her homeroom class. The demi-Saiyan was prepared for all hell to break loose when his name was called.

"Satan, Videl."

"Here."

"Servay, Kurt."

"Here."

"Son - wait this, can't be right..."

"I'm here, and yes, my name is Son Gohan, you're roster is correct," Gohan said, bracing himself mentally. All eyes turned to Gohan, some in awe, but most skeptical.

"You can't be him, you don't have gold hair!" one kid shouted. Gohan sighed. Best to get everything out in the open now so they can have time to settle down. He concentrated his ki, gave a short cry, and transformed.

"You were saying?" he asked, releasing his Super Saiyan state and powering down.

"How- how'd you DO that?" the same kid asked.

"It's genetic and it's the reason for my superhuman strength and speed. Now, if you don't mind, we came here to go to school, not ogle a guy who'd rather stay in the shadows," Gohan reminded a bit harshly, but it got the message across. The Hero of the Earth didn't like the attention. Back. Off.

Videl glared at her best friend, Erasa, as she openly hit on Gohan throughout class. The demi-Saiyan tried to ignore her advances until he couldn't take it anymore and asked that Videl switch seats with the flirtatious blonde. Erasa didn't seem to get that he was trying to politely turn her down and continued her antics in the next class until Gohan requested the same thing of Videl. That time she got the message and sulked for the rest of the day.

By the time the school day ended, word had traveled like wildfire that THE Gohan was attending Orange Star High. However after the demi-Saiyan had glared down a few people who he knew wanted to be his friend just because he was famous, he was left alone about his status. Even though it was only his annoyed glare, any glare from the most powerful being on Earth was scary. By the end of the day, Gohan was friends with Videl and mutual friends with her friend Sharpener. Erasa was tolerated, but the teen didn't consider her a friend since she was a fame-seeker, and he had miraculously met up with Lime again after a separation of three years when she moved to the city. Videl was jealous of Gohan's relationship with the brown-haired teen.

"Hey, how about we all go out for a bite to eat? I know this great all-you-can-eat buffet-" Videl began, but Gohan cut her off.

"Count me in! I'm STARVING!" he said excitedly, making Lime laugh.

"When are you not hungry, Gohan?" she chortled while the others looked at Gohan in shock. They saw him eat lunch... HOW could he be starving after that?"

"When I'm sleeping, you know that, Lime," Gohan said honestly. Lime laughed again.

"Saiyans..." she chuckled.

"'Saiyans'? What's a saiyan?" Videl asked, curious.

"It's Gohan. Well, he's half-Saiyan. There's only one full blooded Saiyan left now, and he's Mirai Trunks and Trunks' father."

"Mirai Trunks?"

"The purple-haired warrior. He's the whole reason Gohan was able to prepare for that battle. He came from an alternate future to stop the apocalyptic world he grew up in," Lime explained.

"Wonder how he's doing now... Haven't seen him since that battle with Bojack and his goons. And I don't know if that's a good thing, considering his timeline stayed the way it was," Gohan mused. The three looked at the two, completely stunned.

"Just what are you people?" Sharpener screeched, causing Gohan to hold his ears.

"Ouch! Not so loud!" he complained.

"You're... kidding... right?" Videl asked.

"No, I'm not. I have very sensitive ears. Only reason the don't hurt in battle is because I've blocked all pain to focus on stopping the threat. Afterwards, I usually collapse from the amount of pain I'm in," Gohan admitted.

"Damn... And you're the same age as us?" Sharpener wondered.

"Yeah. Though I started training when I was four. My first sensei saw the potential I had at that early age and helped me start to grasp it. I could tie in a fight with him by the end of six months of martial arts training."

Needless to say, they were floored.


	3. A Lesson on Tact

I AM ALIVE! Sorry I've been gone for so long, depression really ruins my creativity, but I'M BACK! And I'm here to stay!

-DBZ-

Luckily for the buffet restaurant, they had the ONE Saiyan that knew the meaning of the word restraint eating there. He only ate 7 heaping plates - barely a snack, but he didn't want to bankrupt the place. Videl and Sharpener were beginning to actually expect the unexpected with their new powerhouse friend. Erasa... Not so much.

"Where the heck did you put all that?" she screeched, making not only Gohan, but the others wince as well. Lime answered for the poor half-breed since he was too busy nursing his abused ears to register the question.

"It's a Saiyan thing. They need to eat a lot and frequently because they're honestly made of solid muscle. There's not a fat cell in their entire bodies. Not to mention the amount of energy it take to use even a small amount of ki, let alone have access to the ocean of it Gohan possesses."

"Ki?" Videl asked, never having heard of it before. Maybe...

"It's the energy within our bodies. Physical training and meditation help increase a person's ki reserves. It's basically the strength the body possess in energy form," Gohan explained. "Though a person has to find and unlock their 'core' to utilize it."

"Not to be confused with chi - life energy," Lime added.

"Right. In desperate situations a fighter could start drawing on their chi in an all-or-nothing attempt to stop a threat, but the results... Well, it's a self-sacrificing move," Gohan said, having to sugar-coat things at the last second. Lime looked at her friend worriedly.

"You're not STILL beating yourself up about that, are you?" she implored incredulously.

"It's MY fault. If I have just listened to Dad and not let rush get the better of me, he'd still-"

"STOP! Stop that right now Gohan! Listen to me closely: It. Is. Not. Your. Fault. Got it? It's NOT your fault. You were a child, a child literally carrying the fate of the entire world on your shoulders. Seasoned warrior at that age already or not, a child, ANY child would react to such an opportunity to torment their tormentor. Hell, the majority of adults would jump at the chance too! Nobody's perfect, so don't expect perfection of yourself and don't keep beating yourself up because of your few faults. Conquer them, don't keep letting them defeat you! Kami, what have you been doing these past three years without me! You were a hell of a lot better than this before I left!"

Videl, Sharpner, and Erasa stood silently and watched Lime tear into her best friend for daring to drown himself in Survivor's Guilt. Videl and Sharpner knew it was best to let Lime field this issue; In fact, they were trying to think of something to do so they could stay out of an obviously personal dilemma.

Erasa... wasn't so smart.

"Um... we're still here you know."

Lime and Gohan jumped, having completely forgotten they had an audience. Erasa was smiling in what was supposed to be a charming way, and would have been if not for her tactlessness. Videl and Sharpner were glaring daggers at her back while at the same time shooting apologtic glances the other duo's way. Gohan sighed and pinched his nose.

"Thanks for the pep talk, Lime, but I gotta get home. I'll see you all tomorrow at school. Later!" he called as he took to the air and shot towards home.  
>"Nice going, genius," Lime snarked at Erasa who looked like she had been slapped by that comment. "I'm out too."<p>

"I'm going home to train," Videl said as civilly as possible.

"I need to head to work myself," Sharpner stated, even though his shift wasn't for another 2 hours.

Seeing all her friends, old and new, suddenly ditch her caused Erasa to feel the need to ask "What did I say?" to thin air.


End file.
